Mei-Ting Sun: Honesty is prodigy’s policy

If creating good art is about suffering, then pianist Mei-Ting Sun can expect to have a storied career.

The 24-year-old classical sensation, who in March was the first prize winner of the Seventh National Chopin Piano Competition, seems to revel in telling the immense sacrifices he and his parents made in their native China so he could become a classical pianist.

“I started playing at 3 and, even at that age, practiced three hours a day,” said Sun, who will perform an all-Chopin program at the Honolulu Academy of Arts’ theater Friday night. “My parents spent their life savings twice, first to purchase a piano, then to send me to the United States to study.”